WRITTEN BY ALLISON WAY, SENIOR COPYWRITER & CHIEF EDITOR
On Monday, Google reported that it was installing “thousands of miles of” fiber optic cable for the development of the super-fast Google Fiber network. Kansas City could not be more excited.
The lines are currently being installed between Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri and will soon branch out to all Kansas City consumers on both sides of the state line. Once the fiber is live, Kansas Citians will have access to Internet that is 100 times faster than current broadband solutions.
But what does the Google Fiber look like? According to Kevin Lo, the Google executive heading up the project, each cable contains many thin glass fibers, approximately the width of a human hair. Google is currently taking these cables and weaving them into a fiber backbone. It’s a new type of high-speed infrastructure that Kansas City is happy to embrace. Google is then installing these cables into the upper portion of a utility pole (a space that would normally be used for electrical lines). When officially launched, the Google Fiber network will provide speeds of 1 Gbps.
“We’ve measured utility poles; we’ve studied maps and surveyed neighborhoods; we’ve come up with a comprehensive set of detailed engineering plans; and we’ve eaten way too much barbecue,” said Kevin Lo.
Welcome to Kansas City, Google.
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Regarding the title question: It's physics.
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